Tough
by Bookworm8793
Summary: Pepper is rough and tough, rude and insensitive. But she's also a little girl like the rest of them, and little girls need love. Then again, love is kind of hard to give to someone who's convinced she'll never get it. This is Pepper's story. (on hiatus, sorry!)
1. Chapter 1

This is Pepper's story. It is based on the 1982 movie version. Some of it overlaps with Annie's story (and I do not own that dialogue), and some of it is me filling in the gaps and continuing. This is my first fanfiction, but I love criticism, so please give me any and all reactions, good or bad.

Disclaimer: I do not own any characters, situations, or dialogue you recognize from the movie.

Chapter 1

The thing about orphans is they're only worth something young. Folks that go out looking for a new kid want a baby, or one of them toddlers with the big eyes. One they can raise their own. You're only worth as much as you're cute and can win 'em over.

Once you hit, oh, seven or so, but littler for some kids, if you ain't been adopted then it's not gonna happen. Me, I'm almost thirteen, and no beauty either. I stopped being cute about five years old. Only a total head case would want me now, and I ain't goin' nowhere with no crazy person.

That's not saying I wanna be stuck here another five years. Nah, my best bet's to get noticed by somebody lookin' for a kid to get work out of. Not like there are many of 'em around anymore, but it's happened. It ain't a real adoption, 'cause they ain't family even if they sign, but it's still a ticket out. And it's gotta be a heck of a lot easier to escape from somebody's home than it is from this prison. I dunno why Annie even keeps trying. I can't even keep track of the number of times she's gotten caught. Only way outta this dump's a set of adoption papers.

Molly's crying. Again. Screaming her little mouth off again for Annie. I roll over and put my pillow over my head, but I can still hear her. Then comes Annie's voice, comforting the baby. I roll back over.

"How am I supposed to get any sleep around here?" I stand up and start towards them, stepping on people and complaining as I do. "Molly shouldn't be in this room. She's a baby. She cries, all the time. She wets the bed."

"I do not!" she yells back.

Like hell she doesn't, she's only six. Molly'd be sweet if she weren't always crying. She's got these big brown eyes and her voice is real cute. Yeah she doesn't belong in this room; she's still got a shot out.

Duffy and July jump on me then, shoving me on top of Kate. They're a couple of spark plugs, those two. Good for them. They wallop me a couple times with their pillows until I get turned around and go back at them. Pretty soon we're all yelling and laying into each other.

The, sure enough, there's Annie, shoving us apart and fixing us with that glare she's got, like she's our mother or something. "Do you want Ms. Hannigan to come in here? Go back to bed."

The other two scram, but I ain't gonna let a little kid boss me. I step up in front of her, but Annie ain't scared. She never is. She just puts up her fists and says "Now. Or you'll have me to deal with."

She looks pretty funny, this redheaded stick glaring at me like that. But still, I know she ain't bluffing. I may be a head taller, but we'd still be pretty even for a fight. So I just snort. "Ah, blow it out your ol' wazoo."

Annie goes back to Molly as we all get comfortable. Then she starts on about her parents. That girl thinks about nothing else, I swear. I dunno how many of us actually believe it, really. But it's our fairytale, I guess. I mean, any kid here who's never wished for a family's crazy. And when Annie gets going, you have to listen. She's good at it. The way she tells it, you forget you're nearly thirteen and ugly and mean besides, and you start maybe just a little bit to think somebody might want you.


	2. Chapter 2

**Authors Note: Here's the next chapter. It starts to go a bit off what's seen in the movie, and the next ones will do so even more. Please review, I'd love to know what you think!**

Chapter 2

_Crack._

Annie stops singing and freezes. Nobody makes a sound. Then it comes again. _Crack._ Another footstep.

As quietly as possible we pull the sheets back over our heads. Please, please don't come in here. I ain't gettin' up before sunrise again, that'll make the third time this week.

"Did I hear… singing?"

Crap.

Off go the covers and up we scramble. One of these days I'm gonna pound that little brat. We all start getting dressed as Miss Hannigan reels off her list of orders.

Annie stands up. "But it's in the middle of the night."

Idiot! Miss Hannigan's got it in for her already, why's she always have to be so stupid?

"But it's in the middle of the night!" Miss Hannigan sneers in a horrible, high-pitched voice. She twists the front of Annie's nightshirt. "And if this floor don't shine like the top of the Chrysler Building, your backside will. You understand?"

"Yes, Miss Hannigan," we chorus.

She turns back to Annie. "What do we say, Annie?"

Annie puts on a sticky-sweet smile. "I love you, Miss Hannigan."

Miss Hannigan just looks her up and down. "Why any kid would wanna be an orphan is beyond me."

She lets her go. Annie jumps off the bed, landing squarely on her foot. Shrieking with laugher, we sprint from the room.

We scrub the place all morning. The place is literally crawling with orphans. Not surprisingly, Miss Hannigan forgets breakfast. I wonder when the last time was I had breakfast. I go to toss a bucket of dirty water off the fire escape and get Linda, from the room above ours, squarely in the face. She shrieks. I jump on the railing and start climbing as fast as I can; Linda may be prissy but she can still pack a punch.

The last thing we do is strip the beds. As we throw the sheets in the hamper, Annie jumps in.

"Cover me up good!" she urges.

We do it. For some reason, we always do it. Even though we know she's just gonna get caught. We tell her so, too.

"All you ever do is run away," says Kate.

Tessie looks like she might cry. "Oh my goodness, oh my goodness!"

Molly _is_ crying. There's a shock.

Kate isn't deterred. "She'll put you in the cellar with the ghost!"

"You'll get whipped again!" Duffy chimes in.

July's the most practical. She just rolls her eyes. "You're gonna get us in trouble."

Annie doesn't listen. Her voice is muffled beneath all the sheets. "Molly, shut up!"

I smirk. "I'm gonna tell."

"And I'm gonna rearrange your teeth!"

Miss Hannigan's whistle cuts us all off. She starts into us for standing around, but I'm only kind of listening. She notices Annie's not there, but I guess Molly's quicker than she looks, cause she says she's in the bathroom and Miss Hannigan buys it.

Smuggling her out isn't too hard. Mr. Bundles is a decent guy, and he gives us a hand when he can. Not like it's real hard, with Miss Hannigan crawling all over any guy that comes to the door. We get Annie into the back of the truck and hurry back inside. We don't dare talk in the stairwell, but as soon as we close the door to our room, the babble starts.

"We did it!" Duffy exclaims. "We got her out!"

"Oh, I hope she's okay! Where do you think she's gonna go?" Tessie asks.

"She's gonna find her parents!" Molly shouts. July claps a hand over her mouth to shut her up while the others shush her.

"Shut up, you want Miss Hannigan to hear you?" Duffy demands.

I roll my eyes. "She ain't going nowhere," I tell them. "She's gonna get dragged back here like always."

"She might not!" Duffy says.

Tessie shakes her head. "Oh my goodness, oh my goodness!"

"She's gonna do it this time, Pepper," Molly declares, glaring at me.

I just snort. "I give her 'til supper."

Just then, the door bangs open. We whirl around to see Miss Hannigan standing in the doorway. We all jump to our feet and form a line. She looks us over once, and then her expression changes. She starts toward us, very slowly. My stomach flutters and I realize: she knows.

Miss Hannigan makes her way down the line, looking us over. This is how it always goes. She's looking for the weakest one, the one who will break and tell her. One thing's sure, it ain't ever me. Glad she's got that straight at least. Miss Hannigan may scare me just as much as she does anybody else, but I sure as hell ain't gonna admit it.

Finally, she stops. "Molly. Where's Annie?"

Silently, I pray. Annie's a scrawny, hot-tempered little stick who can't get outta here any more than the rest of us, but she's part of our room and that makes her as close to family as anybody here's gonna get. The longer we hold out, the more time she's got.

Molly meets Miss Hannigans glare squarely. "I told you, she hadda go bathroom!"

Miss Hannigan nods slowly, but we all know she ain't convinced. She looks the rest of us over. Instead of deciding on another victim, she just starts down the line. "Kate?"

"She's in the bathroom, Miss Hannigan."

"Duffy?"

"Bathroom, Miss Hannigan."

"Pepper?"

"She's in the bathroom, we told you already."

Then it's Tessie's turn. Miss Hannigan puts her hands on her knees so they're right eye level.

"Tessie?" she asks softly. "Annie's not in the bathroom, is she?"

_Don__'__t __you __dare,_ I think. Tessie hates lying, and she ain't no good at it either. _Don__'__t __you __dare __give __her __away, __we __gotta __cover __for __her, __don__'__t __you __say __a __word__…_

"I… I…"

"Is she?" Miss Hannigan prompts.

"No!" Tessie bursts out, starting to cry. We all groan. "Mr. Bundles took her out with the laundry, I'm sorry everybody, I'm sorry…"

Miss Hannigan straightens, triumphant. "All of you, get downstairs and start scrubbing the front hall," she orders. "And there will be no lunch today." We all groan some more. "What?" she snaps.

"We love you, Miss Hannigan," we chorus dully. I hate her.

"Good." She stumbles from the room.

Tessie sinks onto the bed and starts to cry again. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to do it, I couldn't help it!"

Kate puts an arm around her and pulls her to her feet. "Come on, let's go."

We grab our rags and buckets and head down the stairs. I'm so sick of scrubbing. As I plunge a rag into my bucket of soapy water, I see my knuckles are chapped and red. Through the door to her office, we can hear Miss Hannigan on the phone with the police, telling them Annie'd run away and they hadda find her. I sit back and looked at Tessie.

"Now look what you did, she called the police!"

"I didn't mean it…" Tessie whines.

I stand up and step real close so I'm looking down at her, cowering at my feet. "You hadda go tell, didn't you? Now she's got the police after Annie, and we're all in trouble."

Kate stands up too. "You lay off, you hear? She didn't mean it."

I raise my eyebrows. Kate doesn't usually interfere, it's Annie's job to make sure we don't all tear each other to bits. But Annie ain't here. I shrug and sit back like I don't care that much. She'll be back soon enough.


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's Note: I'm sorry this one is so short. I haven't had time to write very much lately, so I thought it's probably better to put up what I've got than to make you wait for me to get any further, because it might be awhile. Anyway, hope you enjoy!**

Chapter 3

_Riiiiiiiiing!_

I glance up at the door, and then back at the others. They're staring at me wide-eyed. Please, please don't let me be right about this. Slowly, I stand up and open the door. Sure enough, there's Annie, held by the scruff of her neck by a policeman. There's this mangy mutt on the doorstep too. Wonder how she picked _him_ up.

I turn around to holler into the house. "Miss Hannigan! Miss Hannigan!"

"What?" she snarls in my face, and I flinch. Then she sees her. "Annie!" Ooh, is she mad. This ain't gonna be good.

She remembers the policeman when he speaks. "Look what I found under a paving stone, Miss Hannigan."

She's still seething, but she can't very well tear into the kid now, not with a seducible man standing right there. Dear old Miss Hannigan and her priorities. So she scoops Annie up into a hug, practically squishing her, and starts cooing about how worried she was.

Annie pays no attention, just points earnestly at the mutt. Damn kid ain't even scared! It's just like her, getting into more trouble when she ain't even been punished yet. Duffy and Molly grab the dog and slip him inside.

Miss Hannigan lets Annie go and shoves her through the door. She sprints in after the dog, but I stay in the doorway. I wanna see how this goes.

Miss Hannigan starts towards the policeman. "How can I ever thank you enough?"

He smiles. "I'm sure we can think of something if we… get our heads together." I can't resist. I lean forward and taunt, "Kissy, kissy, kissy!"

"Kill…" she mutters. Then she rounds on me. "KILL!"

I jump and race through the door to get out of her reach. I take the stairs two at a time and slide into the sewing room, where some of the girls are trying to shove the mutt under a sheet. "Hurry, she's right behind me, she'll be in any second!" I drop into the chair before an empty sewing machine and get to work.

Annie tucks the last corner under the dog and the girls run back to places. Seconds later, Miss Hannigan appears in the doorway and blows her whistle.

We jump to our feet. "We love you, Miss Hannigan."

She just rolls her eyes. "Sure."

Duffy leans around the doorframe as Miss Hannigan heads for her office. As soon as the door closes, she grins at us and everybody rushes for the dog, chattering and exclaiming over how adorable he is.

I roll my eyes and spin in my seat towards them. "He smells."

As usual, nobody pays attention. "What's his name, Annie?" Molly asks.

Annie grins. "Guess!"

We make a game out of it, trying to come up with a name for him. We decide on Rover, which suits fine, but Annie says it's Sandy. I gotta admit, that's better. He might smell a bit, but he's all right. I dunno how they all think we're gonna keep him more'n a few days without her finding out, but that's the thing about living in a place like this. You stop thinkin' long-term and start making whatever you've got work, even if you know it ain't gonna last.

"She's coming!" Katie hisses from the doorway, and the scramble starts again. They've barely covered the mutt when she bursts through the curtains.

She's drunk, but that doesn't mean she ain't still scary, especially with the dog in the room. We hold our breaths as she makes her way slowly up the rows of tables, smacking her whistle in her hand. She catches sight of Annie, the one she's really after, still scrambling to pile sheets on Sandy. Annie gulps, trying to shield the dog with her body.

"I love you, Miss Hannigan?" she stammers.

Miss Hannigan only smiles viciously, grabbing her by the front of her dress. "And you will love the paddle closet, Annie." The mound of sheets moves beside her, and she whips the covers off the dog. "And this? Will love the sausage factory." She grabs him too and pulls him off the chair. We all moan. "What?" she snaps.

The room goes dead silent. It ain't ever been so hard to say it as it is now. Finally, we chorus, "We love you, Miss Hannigan."

"Shut up." She drags her two captives from the room.

We all head back to our sewing machines, dejected.

"So much for the dog," July says.

Molly turns to Kate. "You think she's really gonna send him to the sausage factory?"

I spin around to face her. "Of course she is. What did you think she was gonna build 'im a doghouse and let us keep 'im as a pet?"

Molly just glares at me and marches away. Fine, let her have her little fantasies. She'll grow up quick enough here. As I start back on the dress I'm workin' on, my thoughts turn to Annie. She's probably in the closet right now, but we'll hear it soon enough. Annie gets paddled more'n any other kid here. The thing is, she doesn't even seem to care that much. Getting hit just doesn't scare her like it does the rest of us. Like me, I'm no coward, but I make sure a fight's really worth it if I know I might get bruised up. Annie just runs in, fists flailing. I think that's one reason Miss Hannigan's always got it in for her, nothing she does has any effect on that carrot stick. She just grits her teeth and takes it, and then she goes back to what she's doing.

I turn the dress and start stitching on the last sleeve, waiting. But the first sound I hear isn't the one I expect.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

_Riiiiinnnnng!__Riiinnnggg!_

We all look at each other, puzzled. Nobody ever comes up here, and here's two callers in one day. Okay, so one was the cop bringing Annie home, but still.

"All right, all right!"

Miss Hannigan comes stumbling down the hall and opens the door. Our ears prick up and we listen hard.

It's some lady, but not the type we usually get. She's real pretty and dressed real nice too. I ain't ever seen somebody so clean and neat. Right away the babble starts up.

"What do you s'pose she's doing here?"

"I bet she wants to adopt somebody!"

"You think she'll like me?"

"I bet it'll be me!"

I just roll my eyes like I ain't interested. I ain't, anyway. Whatever she wants, it ain't twelve an' short-haired an' gangly an' ugly.

They go into Miss Hannigan's office, but they don't shut the door, so we can hear them talking in there. Can't really understand what they're saying, but it doesn't sound like anything too interesting. Some of the littler girls try to get close, but Kate and Linda shoo them back to work. If that lady's really gonna adopt somebody, it's gonna be somebody who does what she's told.

"This brat's got to learn to know her place!"

My ears prick up. Miss Hannigan, yelling at somebody who's about to take one of us off her hands? That doesn't sound right. A couple girls inch over to the window, and this time nobody stops them.

"And Annie's entirely too cheeky!"

"Well, Mr. Warbucks likes cheeky orphans!"

Warbucks? The rich one? Leapin' lizards… I can't help it. I follow the others over to the window. They've got Annie strung between them, each with an arm.

"What's going on?" I whisper.

Tessie turns around. "She wants to take Annie to spend a week with Mr. Warbucks!"

Leapin' lizards. Miss Hannigan's mad, but looks like this lady gives as good as she gets. She's knows how to get her too; one threat to her job and Annie's good as hers. I shake my head, smiling in spite of myself. I don't believe it, that little carrot stick's getting out of trouble _again_. She starts to follow the lady, but then she stops.

"My dog."

You _idiot_. You just got a ticket out of here, don't you know better than to risk that? Leave the mangy mutt and get going! But the lady goes for it. I think by this point she'd do anything to get under Miss Hannigan's skin. And good for her, she can do it, too. She takes Annie and the dog out to the street and they get in this car, all shiny and new. We run to the sewing room window to watch, waving and screaming our goodbyes. Finally, the car pulls out of sight and we all step back, grinning.

"Do you believe it?" Kate asks.

July leans back against the table. "An' she's gonna get to stay in that big house an' eat real food an' meet lots of people…"

"Oh my goodness, oh my goodness!" But this time Tessie's smiling when she says it.

_Tweeeeeeet!_

"What are you all standing around for?"

We leap to attention. Ohhhh is she mad. I hear Molly gulp loudly beside me.

"You've got three orders of dresses to finish by supper, and those upstairs hallways are filthy! Now get to work, all of you, or kill, kill, kill!"

We jump and go running from the room as fast as we can. This bit I didn't count on. We're stuck scrubbing and sewing all day, but the other girls make sure to give Miss Hannigan hell for us, jumping out and scaring her and stomping on her feet. I gotta remember to thank Trixie for getting her good that once.

Miss Hannigan's criminal brother comes to visit in the evening, dragging the newest idiot of a girlfriend with him. This one looks even dumber than the last. They're in asking for money for a bit, and when they go, they go fast. Even I know he's nicked a few bucks. By the look on the old witch's face when she comes out of her room, she knows it too. She looks us all over once.

"Bed. Now."

"But we ain't had no supper!" Duffy says.

"You think I don't know that? Get, all of you!"

Sighing, we trudge up the stairs to fill seven beds with just six little girls. It's a long night. Sure enough, within a few hours, Molly's crying again.

"Annie! Annie!"

I roll over. Another nightmare, probably. Only this time Annie ain't here. I guess she remembers 'cause she stops calling and we're all left in the dark with her sobbing.

I sigh. "Would somebody shut her up?"

Kate throws me a dirty look as she pulls herself out of bed and sits next to Molly. "It's all right," she says softly. "Just a nightmare, right? Nothing to worry about, it's not real."

"But it _is_ real," Molly tells her. "I dreamed Annie was gone. And she is, she left us!"

Kate puts an arm around her. "But she's staying in a real nice place. Aren't you happy about that? She's gonna spend a whole week having adventures and meeting new people and she'll bring back loads of stories for you! I bet she's even got her own room right now."

I snort. "Yeah, and we're stuck here."

Duffy sits up sharply. "You saying you ain't happy for her?"

"An' what if I am?"

"It's true," July chimes in. "She gets out an' that's great an' all, but what about us?"

"Don't be stupid, we can't _all_ go," Duffy scoffs.

I get to my feet and raise my fists. "Who're you calling stupid?"

"Oh my goodness, oh my goodness!"

"That's enough, all of you." Kate stands up, glaring. "It won't do any good staying up all night arguing, we'll just get in trouble again. Annie got lucky and we're gonna be happy for her. You think she'd want us acting like this? Come on, all of you get to bed."

We all obey. The room is dead silent for a long time, a heavy sort of silence. We lay in the dark for a long time, just breathing. Nobody's asleep, I can tell, even though they ain't making any noise. Sometimes you can just tell.

"Betcha he reads, betcha he sews…"

I say it more to myself than anything else, like a sort of comfort. But then July's voice comes out of the darkness.

"Maybe she's made me a closet of clothes."

Tessie joins in. "Maybe they're strict, as straight as a line."

Duffy sighs. "Don't really care, as long as they're mine."

I thought Kate might be angry with us for making noise, but she finishes it. "So maybe now this prayer's the last one of it's kind."

"Won't you please come get your baby? Maybe."


	5. Chapter 5

**Author's Note: Hey guys, sorry it's been so long since I've posted. Gotta love finals, right? Here's my next chapter, hope you enjoy it! Also, I'm always looking for feedback, good and bad, so please review!**

Chapter 5

It's weird, not having Annie around. It's like this big hole in our room where she usually is. Ain't like that kid's quiet when she's here, so when she's gone, you really notice, and we ain't used to losing her more than a couple hours every time she runs away. Now we gotta get through a whole week. An' it ain't like I'm gonna tell anybody, but I'm starting to miss that carrot stick.

At the same time, nobody ever stops talking about her. I guess it's cause nothing interesting ever happens around here, but seems like all anybody thinks about is what Annie's maybe up to now.

"You think she's got her own room?" Duffy asks. We're all sitting in our room 'cause we got the dresses done early and Miss Hannigan's too tired to come up with something else for us to do.

I snort. "Didn't we already decide she did?"

They all ignore me. "What do you think she's doing right now?" Kate asks.

"Maybe she's shopping!" Duffy says. "I bet they got her lots of nice clothes."

"You think they're gonna take her to the zoo?" Molly asks.

"I bet they do," answers Kate. "And the movies, too! She'd be the first one to see a movie, can you imagine?"

"Pepper's seen a movie," Tessie says, knitting her brow.

July snorts. "No she ain't, she was making it up."

"You callin' me a liar?"

"Maybe I am," she retorts. "You ain't seen a movie an' you know it. Everybody knows your folks were poor as dirt an' besides, you'd be too little to remember anyway."

I stand up. "Don't you say a word about my folks, you hear? I was five years old when I got here, so that ain't too little to remember at all. I'm tellin' you they took me to a movie and that's all there is to it."

"Yeah? What movie? Bet you don't even remember."

"I do, it was 'The Great Gatsby'."

"You made that up!"

"I didn't either!" I shout. "It was 'The Great Gatsby' an' it was about a ton of rich people in fancy clothes an' maybe my folks never had that but they took me to a movie an' I ain't hearing you say they didn't!"

I march out of the room. I dunno where I'm going, but I ain't staying in that room another second. They don't have to believe me. I know half of them don't. I do lie a lot. I gotta, since nobody likes me much anyway and I'm one of the few that remembers their folks. But this time I ain't lying, I swear. I sit down on the staircase.

_ It was real cold that day. We walked forever, but I didn't mind. This was my treat. Mother was always saving, an' finally Dad stayed sober long enough to afford three movie tickets. I was frozen through by the time we got there, but we went inside an' it was warm an' the prettiest place I'd ever seen. The sign said "The Great Gatsby" in real big letters. I wanted to get popcorn, but Mother said the tickets cost enough an' we couldn't have popcorn too, so we went in and sat down. I dunno what the movie was about, but they all wore real nice clothes. I asked Mother if I could have a dress like the one the lady in the movie wore. I wanted one for Christmas. She told me maybe. I didn't get one, but by Christmas I didn't expect one._

"What do you think you're doing?"

I jolt and look up. Miss Hannigan's standing over me, glaring. I pretend I ain't scared.

"I'm sitting," I tell her. "Is that a crime?"

"I thought I told you all to stay in your rooms, didn't I?"

"Yeah, but you didn't say we hadda stay locked in," I retort.

She grabs the front of my sweater and hauls me to my feet. "You get back to your room, unless you want a trip to the paddle closet," she says, her face inches from mine. "Now, what do you say?"

I smile sweetly. "I love you, Miss Hannigan."

"Right."

She lets go of my shirt and I stomp hard on her foot. She shrieks and makes a grab for me, but I'm already sprinting up the stairs as fast as I can. That never gets old.


End file.
